The present invention is in the field of CTI telephony including data network telephony (DNT) communication and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for routing incoming communication events.
Telephone call processing and switching systems are, at the time of the present patent application, relatively sophisticated, computerized systems, and development and introduction of new systems continues. Much information on the nature of such hardware and software is available in a number of publications accessible to the present inventor and to those with skill in the art in general. For this reason, much minute detail of known systems is not reproduced here, as to do so would obscure the facts of the invention.
One document which provides considerable information on intelligent networks is xe2x80x9cITU-T Recommendation Q.1219, Intelligent Network User""s Guide for Capability Set 1xe2x80x9d, dated April, 1994. This document is incorporated herein by reference.
At the time of filing the present patent application there continues to be remarkable growth in telephone routing systems, with routing done both at or near point-of origin of incoming calls, and at call destinations. For example, systems are known to the present inventor that perform initial call processing before routing an incoming call to a destination switch, and further routing is done at the call destination in computerized telephony equipment, often termed customer premises equipment (CPE). The present invention pertains most particularly to routing at customer premises.
There is, at the time of the present patent application, a considerable range of CPE systems available for use from various manufacturers, and, as state-of-the-art routing systems are typically computerized, there is a broad variety of software available for such systems as well. It is the software in general wherein routing rules are set, and the routing rules determine the decision-making paths a system follows in routing calls.
A large technical support operation serves as a good example in this specification of the kind of applications of telephone equipment and functions to which the present inventions pertain and apply, and a technical support organization may be used from time to time in the current specification for example purposes. Such a technical support system, as well as other such systems, typically has a country wide or even a world wide matrix of call centers for serving customer""s needs. Such call center operations are more and more a common practice to provide redundancy and decentralization.
In a call center, a relatively large number of agents typically handle telephone communication with callers. Each agent is typically assigned to a telephone connected to a central switch, which is in turn connected to a public-switched telephone network (PSTN), well-known in the art. The central switch may be one of several types, such as Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), Private Branch Exchange (PBX), or a Public Access Branch Exchange (PABX). Each agent also typically has access to a computer platform having a video display unit (PC/VDU).
In addition to CTI communications centers, DNT capability including Internet Protocol (IP) communication has been introduced and successfully integrated into the telephony environment. In current art, it is not uncommon to have a CTI-enhanced call center that also practices Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT). With added capability and expanded media options, the term communication center now more appropriately describes the call-in center.
At the time of the present patent application intelligent telephony networks and IP networks share infrastructure to some extent, and computer equipment added to telephony systems for computer-telephony integration (CTI) are also capable of Internet connection and interaction. Therefore, there is often no clear distinction as to what part of a network is conventional telephony, and what part is IPT.
In conventional telephony systems, such as public-switched telephony networks (PSTNs), there are computerized service control points (SCPs) that provide central routing intelligence (hence the term intelligent network). Internet Protocol Networks (IPNs) do not have a centralized routing intelligence, such as a SCP. IPNs, however, have multiple Domain Name Servers (DNS), whose purpose is somewhat similar to that of routers in intelligent networks, which is to control the routing of traffic. Instead of telephony switches (PBXs), IP switches or IP routers are used.
Further to the above, IPT systems at the time of the present patent application are much less sophisticated than are CTI systems in provision of intelligent routing, parallel data transfer, supplemental data provision to agents, and the like. The advantages that embodiments of the invention described below bring to conventional telephony systems may also in most cases be provided to IPT systems and systems in which the form of the network between conventional telephony and IP protocol is blurred.
Telephony routing systems typically rely in part on customer identification, call-destination information, and call origination information to aid in routing. In standard telephony service such information, with the exception of caller identity, is typically provided as part of the service through such as caller line identity (CLID), automatic number identification service (ANIS), destination number identification service (DNIS), and so on. These protocols are well developed in standard telephony services, but are not well defined in DNT systems. Often, identification of a customer (actual person making the call) must be solicited at the time of the call.
One protocol developed to aid wireless communication in telephony is the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). The WAP protocol simplifies communication between wireless devices operating on a given network. WAP compliant devices are typically personalized devices which must have an assigned address and which must be authenticated on a network before use. Therefore, caller identification is a standard part of placing a call from a device that requires authentication to operate on a given network.
In prior art systems, routing protocol is typically institutionalized within a communications center using applicable software. Although there are widely varying systems in the art for creating and implementing routing rules, all such systems exhibit a common drawback. That is to say that once set up (programmed) to follow certain routing rules and practices, such rules cannot easily vary, and individual users or groups of users, cannot easily change or modify the rules.
In all telephony environments callers seeking service from a communications center do not always fit into defined categories that may be covered by existing rigid routing rules. Perhaps a caller has more than one objective when calling a communications center. Perhaps a caller requests a service that could be performed, but is not defined as an task within the center. Flexible routing routines and error routing routines are developed to handle such situations. However, such routines often dispose of callers in ways that the callers themselves do not expect or desire. One example, would be continually routing an individual back to an IVR menu because he or she wants to accomplish a goal that is not specifically defined with specific routing options made available to the caller when placing the call.
A degree of routing flexibility has more recently been achieved in more advanced intelligent systems known to the inventor through introduction of various xe2x80x9cflexiblexe2x80x9d routing techniques. Among these are skill-based routing, predictive routing, priority routing, statistical routing, virtual queuing, and even knowledge-based routing. These routing techniques are known to the inventor, may be implemented in combination, and are typically server-controlled and executed. In some applications, these flexible rules may be changed for special cases at the time of or before a call reach a final destination. In this way, even more flexibility in routing may be achieved. In some of these systems known to the inventor, profiles are developed for repeat callers so that identification is more complete and special routing routines may be developed and executed based on profiled histories.
Even with all of the above-described improvements in routing techniques, there is still a measure of rigidity inherent with a rules-based routing system of any sort. That is to say that the actual rules are designed to accommodate certain known situations that take into account known parameters. Invariably, routing rules are set in place to handle predicted situations. Changing the rules, while not impossible, usually requires that someone having applicable skills in the art spend time and effort in order to effect any changes either before or at the time of a call.
What is clearly needed is a routing system that does not depend on pre-existing knowledge about callers or defined call situations that rigidly invoke specific call-handling routines. Such a system would offer a communications center the greatest degree available in routing flexibility and provide callers with an even more personalized and interactive service.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a computerized routing system for routing communications events to final destinations is provided. The system includes a communications routing apparatus for receiving and routing the communications events and a system-client interface for accepting input upon arrival of the events to the communications routing apparatus. The system also includes a data repository for storing data related to at least one communications agent, and a software application for performing a data search in the data repository using the input taken from the communications events and determining routing destinations for the communications events based on the results of the data search.
In one aspect of the present invention, the system is adapted to a CTI-telephony environment wherein at least one of the communications events is a telephone call, at least one of the communications agents is a service representative, and the routing apparatus is a telephony switch. In this aspect, the routing performed by the system takes place within a telephony communications center.
In another aspect of the present invention, the system is adapted to a data-network telephony environment wherein at least one of the communications events is an IP voice call, at least one of the communications agents is a service representative, and the routing apparatus is an IP data router. In this aspect, the routing performed by the system takes place within a telephony communications center enhanced with DNT capabilities and equipment.
In both of the above-described aspects, the communications events may be of forms other than voice calls such as e-mails, faxes, instant messages, or other known forms. In still another aspect the system is adapted for wireless communication wherein the medium of communication is a wireless data network.
In still another aspect of the present invention the system is adapted to a personal routing environment wherein the routing apparatus is a personal router dedicated either in whole or in part to serving one communications agent having multiple destination numbers. In this aspect of the present invention, the routing apparatus is part of a telephony service subscribed to by the communications agent. Alternatively, the routing apparatus is a personal IP data router maintained by the agent.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, a software application for determining routing destinations for communications events is provided. The software application includes a parsing module for parsing input from a communications event, a data-search module for searching a data repository using the parsed input, and an optimization module for optimizing the results of the data search and selecting a routing destination from the optimized data. In one embodiment, the input is solicited through an interactive voice response capability. Also in one embodiment the interactive voice response capability is enhanced with voice recognition capability.
In some aspects of the present invention the communications events are text based and the parsing module parses text from the events. In other aspects, the communications events are voice calls and the parsing module parses keywords and phrases from solicited voice input. In a preferred embodiment the optimization module optimizes the data according to data-match percentage values. And in some aspects of a preferred embodiment the data-search module searches more than one designated data repository for matching data.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method for routing communications events to communications agents is provided. The method includes the steps of obtaining input data from the communications events, and then parsing the obtained data for keywords and phrases. A data search is then performed in a data repository using the parsed keywords and phrases obtained from the input data. The search results are then optimized according to data match percentage values, and a routing destination is determined from the optimized data. Communications events are then routed to the selected routing destinations.
In preferred embodiments, the method is practiced in a CTI telephony environment that is enhanced with data-network-telephony capability including IP telephony. Through practicing the present invention, communications events may be routed to best matching service agents in a communication center and other telephony environments without depending on rigid rules-based routing conventions as will be taught below.